Have Jamaicans really become so stupid?

Buju Banton and Chronixx

Has the country that gave the world Marcus Garvey, Dutty Boukman, Leonard Percival Howell and the Maroons of Jamaica really gotten so dumb over the years?

Buju Banton’s first concert after his release from prison will be in Trinidad and Tobago. This has many Jamaicans throwing major temper tantrums. It is difficult for these Jamaicans to fathom why Buju would perform in another land before performing in his own homeland.

The anger towards Buju shows how stupid we have become to what is happening around us as a people. We are angry because one of our superstars chooses to perform in front of our African brothers and sisters in Trinidad, yet we showed no such anger when Chronixx performed in apartheid Israel. How silly can we be? We are quite fine when our celebrities hold the oppressors hands but lose our cool when they hold our brothers hands.

We are like mindless drones sleep walking through this thing we call life. We eat up whatever information we are fed without taking a little timeout to think for ourselves. Then we wonder why we have been stuck at the bottom for so long. The truth is we are our own biggest oppressors. Not only are we our own biggest oppressors but we are as oppressive to other people just like whites are; the only difference is we do not possess the military might as whites.

Chronixx was hailed as a hero after performing in apartheid Israel but Buju Banton is a villain for performing in Trinidad. Before Buju Banton sets foot in Trinidad, before he is even released from prison, Ziggy Marley will have performed in apartheid Israel, again, with absolutely no outrage but some are ready to crucify Buju Banton. We are mentally sick with little hope of being healed anytime soon.

Until we wake up as a people, until we start realizing what is important, until we can feel the pain of others, until we realize that apartheid against the Palestinian people is no different than that which was face by South Africans, until we learn to love each other so we see no difference between Jamaicans and Trinidadians; we will forever be broke, drug dealers, murderers and bums, at the white man table begging for crumbs.

So-called Rastas supporting apartheid is the devil’s work. Buju Banton taking the message to Africans scattered anywhere on this earth is performing the work of Jah as we were taught by Marcus Garvey.